Prison Plan Opposed

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 1

Prison Plan Opposed

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 30. A recent suggestion by a committee of the British House of Commons that the wives of long-term prisoners should pay overnight “conjugal visits” to their husbands in prisons is not supported by the New Zealand Director of Prisons, Mr I. J. D. Mackay.

Asked to comment on the suggestion, he said: “It would be preferable that carefully selected prisoners should go to their homes on extended parole.”

A similar opinion was expressed by the domestic conciliator in Auckland, Mrs J. Macdonald, who spends three days a week visiting at Auckland prison and who is in touch with prisoners’ families or de facto wives. She would like to see an extension of the existing system, which allows selected first offenders home on weekend leave every four months. For many years the chaplain and welfare officer at the Auckland prison, Captain S. R. Banyard, has heard arguments for and against the British suggestion.

“I don’t believe the idea is necessary either for physical or psychological reasons. Many men, such as sailors and soldiers, have to adapt themselves to being without their wives for long periods. “On the other hand,” he added, "if a young married woman wishes to have a lawful child I feel she should be allowed the right to have it”